{"id":14656,"date":"2020-10-21T15:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/?p=14656"},"modified":"2020-10-20T12:21:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T10:21:19","slug":"google-search-operators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/google-search-operators\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide to Google Search Operators"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The most popular internet search engine is Google. That much is obvious from the very fact that \u201cgoogling things\u201d has completely replaced \u201clooking things up online\u201d in our vocabulary. And it is simple enough, just type some keywords into a field, press Enter, and you\u2019ll get some links to whatever you were searching for.<br \/>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Smart as it is, though, Google will only supply you with what you ask for, rather than what you want, which can be frustrating sometimes. Fortunately, there are many ways to refine your searches using additional commands called operators in your queries. Each one of these operators is useful on its own, but you can also combine them for very fine searches.<br \/>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Here is our guide to Google search operators. We have subdivided them by function:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#exact-matches-and-key-phrases\">Exact Matches and Key Phrases<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#site-specific-searches\">Site-specific Searches<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#searches-in-a-time-interval\">Searches In a Time Interval<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#social-searches\">Social Searches<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#searches-by-price\">Searches By Price<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#location-related-searches\">Location Related Searches<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#searches-by-file-type\">Searches By File Type<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#advanced-operators\">Advanced Operators<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"exact-matches-and-key-phrases\"><\/a>Exact Matches and Key Phrases<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Google sees each word as a separate search term. If you want Google to return exact matches of a phrase, use quotation marks (\u201c\u201d).<br \/>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]\u201c<em>Google search<\/em>\u201d will, for instance, only return exact matches of the phrase \u201cGoogle search\u201d, rather than results containing both \u201cGoogle\u201d and \u201csearch\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]If you are looking to connect two different keywords as parts of a phrase, you can use the asterisk (*) as a kind of a wildcard.<br \/>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<em>WordPress * plugin<\/em> will return phrases such as<em> WordPress <strong>backup<\/strong> plugin<\/em>, <em>WordPress <strong>SEO<\/strong> plugin<\/em>, <em>WordPress <strong>theme and<\/strong> plugin<\/em>, and the like.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]If you want to force or exclude a match, you can use the plus and minus signs (<strong>+<\/strong>,<strong> &#8211;<\/strong>).[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]For instance, a query of \u201c<em>pie recipe<\/em>\u201d -apple will return results containing the exact phrase \u201cpie recipe\u201d and exclude results containing \u201capple\u201d. Conversely, \u201c<em>pie recipe<\/em>\u201d +\u201d<em>sour cherry<\/em>\u201d will return results containing both exact phrases: \u201cpie recipe\u201d and \u201csour cherry\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]If you are looking for a keyword which may appear in different grammatical forms or synonyms, you can try using the<strong> OR<\/strong> or pipe (<strong>|<\/strong>) operator. A query of <em>america OR american<\/em> will return results containing either of the keywords separated by the operator.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"site-specific-searches\"><\/a>Site-specific Searches<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]You can also use Google to search one website and one website only, which is especially useful for content-rich domains such as news outlets and wiki websites. To search a single website, use the <strong>site:<\/strong> operator.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]A search of<em> site:theguardian.com sweden<\/em> will return results from the domain \u201ctheguardian.com\u201d containing the keyword \u201csweden\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]This already powerful tool can be further refined using other operators. A query of <em>site:theguardian.com \u201cswedish social democratic party\u201d<\/em> <em>-election<\/em> will return results from theguardian.com containing the exact phrase \u201cswedish social democratic party\u201d but excluding any results containing the keyword \u201celection\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]You can also use the asterisk operator to act as a domain placeholder. For instance, a search of <em>site:*.wiktionary.org lame<\/em> will return results from various language versions of the Wiktionary like en.wiktionary.org, fr.wiktionary.org, and others, with various definitions of the word \u201clame\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]You can also turn the site search around on its head by searching for pages which link to a certain page by using the <strong>link:<\/strong> operator. Simply follow up the operator by a page url, and you will get results from pages linking to it. Add keywords for some more precision.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"searches-in-a-time-interval\"><\/a>Searches Within a Time Interval<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]But what if you want to search an archive, or if you have a rough idea of when the content you are looking for was published? Google has an operator which you can use.<br \/>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]To search for a number in an array of integers, you can use the dots operator (..). For example, if you search for <em>olympic games 1920..1940<\/em> you get results containing the keywords \u201colympic\u201d, \u201cgames\u201d, and a number from the 1920-1940 range.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;80px&#8221;][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=&#8221;new-top-picks-banner&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;81px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"social-searches\"><\/a>Social Searches<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Searches on social media websites are easy and intuitive. If you are looking for a social media profile, preface your keyword with an \u201cat\u201d sign (@). For instance, a search of<em> @qodeinteractive<\/em> will return results from our profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Behance, Dribbble, and other social media.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]And if you want to search a hashtag, simply preface your keyword with an hash symbol (<strong>#<\/strong>). A query of \u201c<em>#bridgetheme<\/em>\u201d will render results from various social media tagged with #bridgetheme.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"searches-by-price\"><\/a>Searches By Price<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]If you are shopping for anything from real estate to pizza, you may already have a budget in mind. Assuming your budget is in US dollars, euro, or pound sterling Google can help you find the deal you need. Simply preface your search with a currency sign (<strong>$<\/strong>, <strong>\u00a3<\/strong>, or <strong>\u20ac<\/strong>) and a price. You can also use a decimal point (.) for very precise searches.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]For instance, a search of <em>$10 burger beer<\/em> will render results for burger and beer deals costing USD10, while <em>\u20ac1000<\/em> &#8220;<em>used car<\/em>&#8221; will return results for used cars costing 1000 euro.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"location-related-searches\"><\/a>Location Related Searches<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]To get results for a specific location, use the <strong>loc:<\/strong> operator. For Google News results, use <strong>location:<\/strong>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]For example, searching for<em> loc:hanoi grill<\/em> is a great way to find a grill restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Similarly, if you are interested in local weather, you can use the <strong>weather:<\/strong> operator.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]A query of <em>weather:hell norway<\/em> will give you the latest on the weather in the town of Hell, Norway.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"searches-by-file-type\"><\/a>Searches By File Type<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]But what if you are not even looking for a website, but a document, or any particular file type? You can use google to search by file type by using the <strong>filetype:<\/strong> operator.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]A Google search for <em>filetype:pdf superman<\/em> will return results for downloadable pdfs featuring the Last Son of Krypton. This also works with other extensions, such as <em>doc<\/em> or<em> txt<\/em>, making archive searches much easier.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]You can also use Google to search for images of a particular size using the<strong> imagesize:<\/strong> operator. You need to follow it up with a width and a height in pixels, separated by x.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]A query of<em> filetype:gif imagesize:500&#215;300 cat<\/em> will return gifs sized 500 by 300 pixels related to the keyword \u201ccat\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"advanced-operators\"><\/a>Advanced Operators<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Finally, we will touch upon some advanced operators.<br \/>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]To search for a keyword which is a part of an URL, use the <strong>inurl:<\/strong> operator. Similarly, searching using the <strong>inposttitle:<\/strong> and <strong>intitle:<\/strong> operators will render results containing the keyword in the page or post title (useful for searching blogs or news outlets), while the<strong> inanchor:<\/strong> operator is used for searching anchors. To search the post text itself for keywords, you can use the <strong>intext:<\/strong> operator.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Prefacing the above operators with<strong> all<\/strong> (<strong>allinurl:<\/strong>, <strong>allintext:<\/strong>, <strong>allintitle:<\/strong>, and <strong>allinanchor:<\/strong>) will render results for several keywords, all of which will be appearing in the search at the appropriate places.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\">In Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]And there you have it, our handy guide to Google search operators. As we have shown above, you can also combine any of these for greater precision in your searches. With just a few easy commands you, too, can save time by refining your searches and avoiding slogging through barely related results.<br \/>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking to refine your Google searches? It&#8217;s easy once you introduce some Google search operators. We will show you how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16990,"featured_media":14665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4,39],"class_list":["post-14656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resources","tag-tips","tag-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16990"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}